Men’s Basketball: Stingers Take Care Of Laval in Season Finale

Concordia End Regular Season With Second Straight Win

UQAM cut Concordia’s season short last season. Stingers will hope this isn’t the case this time around. Photo Carl Bindman

The Concordia Stingers men’s basketball team completed a solid 11 win, five loss campaign on Saturday evening with their 75-63 win over the Laval Rouge Et Or at the John Dore Gym.

This game was Stingers’ center Michael Fosu’s last on his home floor, and the team wanted to make sure they sent him off well.

“We always want to win every game, but we really wanted to win this one for Mike,” said Concordia guard Ken Beaulieu.

The fifth-year team captain, who was dedicating this game to his grandfather and his family, gave the Concordia crowd something to remember. He scored 14 points, grabbed four rebounds, had three assists and two steals. He even made a three-pointer, which drew a big reaction from the crowd.

“It meant a lot that everyone came out to support,” said Fosu. “But I’m just mostly happy to get this win in my last home game.”

With under two minutes to play, and Concordia holding a large lead, Fosu converted on a conventional three-point play that really got the crowd fired up.

Those would be his last three points in the John Dore Gym as a Stinger.

“I’m really happy for Fosu,” said Stinger head coach Rastko Popovic. “He’s an emotional leader, and the heart and soul of this team. I’m very happy that he got to end with that and-one. It really got everyone excited.”

This game was never really in any doubt for the Stingers. As of the midway point in the third quarter, Laval never managed to get to within 10 points of Concordia. That came thanks to what coach Popovic described as a really encouraging defensive performance from his team.

“I really liked what we did defensively throughout the entire game,” said Popovic. “Ricardo [Monge] got into a little foul trouble and that limited him, but everyone else, especially Schneiders [Suffrard], played good defence today.”

On the offensive end, Concordia got a bounceback performance from Beaulieu, who scored a game-high 15 points, to go along with his game-high tying seven rebounds. He shared that game high with first-year guard Henderson Charles, who Rastko praised for a good performance coming off the bench.

“I think that I had a few good games in the preseason, but this was one of my best games this season,” said Charles.

He finished with 13 points and three steals, to go along with those seven rebounds, in his 28 minutes in relief of starting shooting guard Nicholas Noble.

The Stingers had locked up the second seed after their win against the Bishop’s Gaiters and UQAM Citadins’ loss to laval from a week ago. With that second seed, they’ll face UQAM on Friday in the semi-finals of the Final Four at Centre Pierre Charbonneau in Montreal.

Concordia’s season was ended by a surprising loss to the Citadins a year ago, but Popovic doesn’t think his team is too concerned about that.

“At the end of the day, lots of our players weren’t even around for that loss last year,” said Popovic. “Henderson [Charles], [Nicholas] Noble, Cedric Corolian, Olivier Simon, they didn’t witness that loss. It’s a new year, and we’re approaching it that way.”

When asked if they’re hoping to have one more shot against the McGill Redmen, Henderson Charles and Ken Beaulieu responded emphatically.

“Of course we do!” said Beaulieu, laughing.

If they take care of UQAM and McGill beats Laval, next weekend, they will get that chance.